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Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has introduced legislation in the United States Senate that would make it possible for family’s to have guns owned by an “unstable” person confiscated.

“We failed our children. Call it what you want, but we are failing our children because we have a basic task to keep them safe,” Boxer said on the Senate floor Monday. “We have a function here not to allow someone who is unstable or violent to get a weapon.”

Under current federal statute, people with mental illnesses are only prevented from buying guns if they have been involuntarily institutionalized or a judge has deemed them mentally ill.

Boxer said her bill would allow family members who are concerned about the mental stability of a person to petition the court for a gun-violence prevention warrant. The warrant could prevent someone from buying a gun and would allow the police to confiscate guns already owned by the person if the court deems the person as a threat.

Sure, this sounds good in theory right? Keep guns out of the hands of nutjobs. However, who decides if a person is mentally unstable? Is it a judge? The person’s family? A court appointed psychiatrist? Would certain courts consider someone “unstable” simply because they choose to own a large number of guns?

If a person’s family decides to petition the court for one of these warrants does that mean the person the warrant targets has to drop what they’re doing and undergo an invasive psychological evaluation?

I think we can all agree that truly crazy people shouldn’t have guns, but if we aren’t careful about how we do that we create a system where anyone can be disarmed by anyone else by pointing their finger and yelling “Unstable person!” This could quickly turn into a modern day witch hunt.

Also, once a person’s guns are confiscated, how easily will they be able to get them back? Will they have to show proof of ownership? What if they bought them second hand? What if they were inherited? Will the person have to pay a lawyer to go through a lengthy legal process in order to get their firearms returned to them?